Waging war in a democracy

[Trinity]

I don't know about this war weariness thing. This is my first war as a democracy and it's been going on for about 20 turns. We're fighting Babylonia.

I went to the trade screen to try a trade with Babylon. They blame me for breaking deals and said they have long memories and won't trade with me ever. Okay. They dragged me into a stupid war with Persia via MPP by allying against Persia when the Iroquois attacked. I stayed in the war for 20 turns, then Persia settled for peace with me. I took two Persian cities.

20 more turns pass. The Iroquois settled and Babylon is still at war, and is the most powerful culturally. I want to prevent a cultural victory, except by me.

So in the trade screen I demand New Akkad in exchange for ivory. This insults Hamurrabi and he goes to furious. He drops a spearman in my territory. I demand he leave or declare war. He declares war. We were attacked by the vermin! [punch]

This war is dragging out because infantry vs. infantry is trench warfare, and is very difficult to make any progress. He changes to Communism. I ally with the furious Xerses against him and take two Babylonian cities, and two occupied Persian cities from Babylon. They are so far away that the corruption is unbearable. That and I have 74 cities.

No war weariness! Fabulous! I guess it's because I've got happiness generating improvements and am continuing to build them. I didn't go to war mode. And the fact that we're just defending ourselves. No draft.

I try to repair my rep with Xerses by giving him Sardis after I took it from Babylon. Do you think he's grateful? No the SOB is still furious.

Well, I get tanks in 5 turns and mech infantry in 18 (if my calculation is correct. Meanwhile I'll just keep building upgradable units.

Death to Babylon!

But why does it say I need a spy in Babylon to get troop positions when I've got one there? :aargh3:

 

[Alphidius]

Trinity: War Weariness really comes in only when you've lots of units in enemy's territory and if the war really drags on 100 turns perhaps? So try to achieve a goal or two, like taking of certain cities, cutting of their iron supply and then quickly sue for peace.

No point repairing relations with civs who are always furious, the chance that they'll become cautious towards you is slim.

Yeah keep building upgradable units, infantry, tanks and such. Also bear in mind that upgrading of units is expensive so keep so gold handy.

You'll get a spy when you've discovered espionage and built the Intelligence Agency in one of your cities. After that, you may commit espionage acts and view their units

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Trinity
This war is dragging out because infantry vs. infantry is trench warfare, and is very difficult to make any progress.

Infantry warfare? No problem! Use artillery! In my current game, both Roman and India declared war against me. With both of their forces combine, I see the Roman stack of over 40+ infantries invading my eatern border. Another 50+ Infantries from India invading my SE border. No problem! My I have about 40 infantries, 70+ artilleries and 70 calvaries. During the first turn, I completely eliminated that 40+ stack of infantries while loosing about 5 cavalries. Those artilleries are great! Just bomb your enemy down to one hit point, then send the cavalry out to kill off the wounded.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Dealing stuff for cities is an insult since 1.16 since dealing cities was too easy to exploit.

Spies: if the enemies capital moves (is taken or Palacve built elsewhere) you need to pay a new spy

 

[bobgote]

I found war weariness. it kicked in for me after around 20 turns. (After I destroyed the indians (second strongest after me) and was halfway through killing the americans. Why do these people go to war against me? I did have a whole heap of units in their territory too. The effects were significant, but not debilitating, and only effects were really on my finances and happiness. My cities were too big for any production decrease.

 

[Sanaz]

When at war, you can't use your spies, so you need to get the plans before the war starts. You will have the running tally of what units they have, but you won't know where they are.

In the F1 screen, look at the happy/content column. When war weariness starts, you will see the the number of happy citizens decreasing, it seems a few cities at a time. If you have enough happiness, this number won't drop below the number of citizens, so it won't affect your moods. There are several factors which determine when or if these numbers start decreasing. The first obvious one is when you have citizens of that culture still in your city - as soon as war starts, the happy number drops by the number of enemy citizens. When I'm at war, I sort my cities by that column, and quickly check to see if anyone has lost enough to drop into disorder (more unhappy than happy).

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Sanaz
When at war, you can't use your spies

I'm positive that you can use your spies during war. However, you can't use your embassy during war.

 

[Sanaz]

Originally posted by Moonsinger

I'm positive that you can use your spies during war. However, you can't use your embassy during war.

Hmmm. Maybe I couldn't PLANT my spies during war? I've been doing my spying before attacking, because I thought I had to - I'll be glad to spy during the war, it will be more useful. I need to try it out again next chance I have.

 

[Trinity]

Really the goal in the war is to significantly weaken Babylon. I got in sooner than I wanted, but Persia was getting overrun, and that would have spelled disaster for the game. Babylon had worn down Persia and broke their defenses. Right now I just want to keep Babylon from running over Persia.

My treasury is growing by leaps and bounds. Even though my military is growing by major numbers. We are growing net around 400 gold per turn. I've got at least 12 cities on the WLTSD. This is enough to rush without much penalty. I've got Flight so bombers are heading toward the front as well as a couple of carriers/battleships to provide air/artillery support.

Citizens looking unhappy? NP. I build a Cathedral. I have so many cities I can crank out units and still keep building happiness inducing improvements.

I did fail to build enough artillery units, but should have about a dozen bombers near the front next turn and we'll start carpet bombing. We'll have mech infantry way before Babylon. I'm researching tanks now, and building as many airports as I can for rapid troop transport. I'm hitting Babylon from two fronts. One has two cities left, and the other is through Persia.

Of course there is no resistance when I liberate Persian cities. Babylonian cities are another story, although the laborers are quite happy to be under democracy vs communism once the resistance is quelled.

The cities I'm attacking are well within reach of my battleships' bombardment. I'm going for Babylon's oil resources. I got one of them. Next is their luxury resources to force their trade deals to break. Hmmm. Maybe I can drag Zululand into the war. Germany is absolutely worthless. They just got into the industrial age.

BTW, Babylon hasn't moved their capital. I still get troop number reports, but cannot get troop movements or conduct other espionage.

It does look like Hamurrabi is pop rushing because his infantry numbers exploded in the last turn. This of course means that it's going to be a long drawn out conflict, until I get armored units. Can you spell Battle of the Marne?

My population is in the streets shouting, "Death to Babylonia! Death to Hamurrabi!"

I figure as long as I can keep reporting victories, war weariness won't be an issue.